Where IT waits
by Hellen Lou
Summary: A crossover with NCIS and Stephen King's 'IT'. was placed in the books section then changed. Tony DiNozzo forgot all about his time spent in Derris, Maine. That is until he got the phone call... IT was back and Tony had promises to keep.
1. Chapter 1

Where IT waits

A cross over between NCIS and Stephen King's IT.

Tony had forgotten part of his childhood… he had to other wise he would never had felt that urge to go running back to fulfil the promise he made. Just like the six others, they were all heading back because IT was waking up.

* * *

Prologue

_Summer 1979, Maine _

_The rain always drizzled, that drove him mad enough without having to look out the window to see the turning of the leaves. _

_Summer would always be hot, the good kind of hot and every year it would peak and then die down just as quickly as it came. _

_But when those leaves changed, boy was you in for some washed out afternoons. It barely rained, it drizzled like a runny nose. _

_But this summer was different, it was in the air, it was on the news in all the papers… it was even spoken in passing by everyone who lived in that small town outside Maine. _

_It wasn't the weather that made the summer different, it still rose to it's peak and it would drop back down… though the drizzle started to hit towards the end of the summer it wasn't anything different about that. _

_No this difference came along when the seven of them joined together… to form some club, it wasn't a losers club- no none of them were losers- it was… an outsiders club. _

_No one had spoke those words out loud, but they knew it all the same. _

_This was the summer of IT, IT didn't have to stand out in the streets and scream it's return nor did IT have to plaster the whole town with flyers, like the club name it was just known. _

_The way the children would step cautiously around the drains or sewers, how they would go in groups instead of their own to the standpipes out by the edge of the town and by the way the children were not so neatly disappearing. _

_Some 'sicko' Chief of police Clancy Myers had declared that blistering hot summer day as cameras flashed in his face and pens scribbled short hand across the yellow legal pads. _

_And the adults lapped it up… it explained everything or near enough for them in their prefect grown up world. _

_But to the kids it didn't scratch the surface… the word monster had never been branded around the school yard nor told when the lights dimmed but it was at the forefront of their minds. Tricking them to see IT lingering in their closets or under their beds just waiting for them to be alone just so IT could eat them up and spit out what remained. _

_IT didn't need to wait under the beds or the closets, why when the whole town near enough belonged to IT, why would it have to hunt when it's prey would wander into it's nest and just about lay down with an apple in their mouths. _

_But this summer, this summer wasn't going to be IT's turn, sure it made IT's presence felt and IT began it's feast just like it did in 1949...1919...1889...1859...1829. _

_But IT's hunting days were going to end abruptly for thirty years by seven children who had no idea that forces (a turtle) beyond them were pulling and plotting just so they would find each other and so they would be able to face IT. _

Please don't ask me where this came from... I'm reading the book 'IT' and then NCIS came on and for some reason I began to think what would come if the two ever met. Clowns are more scarier then i ever thought. R&R if you want to read the rest or if you think I'm just going a little insane.


	2. Calling Tony

Chapter one

2009, Washington Navy Yard, Washington DC

Tony DiNozzo wasn't the best time keeper proven he was sure by the balding spot (which he was sure was there) at the back of his head from the repeated hits from Gibbs.

But none the less he didn't amend his ways _(you can't beat time… no matter) _a voice always assured him when Gibbs left him rubbing his head.

For the most part Tony just shook that voice away knowing that it was some part of his childhood that hid in the fog of time.

But today for some strange reason he felt the need to be in early, early enough to gain a surprised look from Ziva David when she strolled in twenty minutes later. She had said something smart about him wanting to impress the boss and he was sure he retorted something back to her but he knew deep in the fog that she flashed him concern.

"DiNozzo" Gibbs shouted once more and Tony found for the third time that morning he had drifted in his thoughts but for the love of him he couldn't remember where those thoughts lingered.

_(Outside… The outsiders club) _it took only a microsecond for that thought to rear up then go back into the fog but it was enough for him to frown but smirk at his boss.

"Sorry boss… you were saying" Tony questioned amused by the glare Gibbs threw at him, it wasn't unlike him to be a smart ass… it was part and parcel about him. However drifting in his thoughts and turning up earlier then he had to wasn't and he knew that his team mates were wondering just what was wrong with him (or in Ziva and McGee's case just what he was up too).

He couldn't hold his hand up and say what exactly had force him into the office early or why he had that unnerving but dull feeling that he wouldn't be leaving the office in good graces but he knew that somewhere in the fog a part of him was screaming the reason.

"I was saying the petty officer's story doesn't add up" Gibbs repeated glaring while McGee and Ziva just watched him.

"Your right… it doesn't, he claims he was at the bar for the night but several witnesses couldn't confirm his story" Tony admitted gaining a reprieve from the glare.

"But neither could they deny it" Ziva injected despite her disbelieving tone… she didn't believe the petty officers claimed innocence but when Tony said black she had to say white.

_(Orange… when he said orange she said green) _Tony knew this saying wasn't right and he almost felt himself saying it out loud but he also knew that Ziva hadn't said anything like that and he would only be thought of a fool again.

"So we round the witnesses up again and his girlfriend" Gibbs ordered as Tony nodded and went to add further when the air was pierced with a ringing sound. Tony jerked away from the sound, he knew it was only his cell but something about the way it rang… it wasn't different from how it rung a thousand other times but the timing unnerved him. It was the feeling you get when you think about someone and they phone you seconds after you think their name.

However Tony doubted Petty Officer Kelvin Uris was ringing him, however Tony still froze as his hand half reached for the cell phone sitting twittering on his desk.

"You going to answer that DiNozzo" Gibbs ordered as Tony flashed his eyes towards his boss and felt the sweat swelling and rolling down his back. It wasn't hot in the building nor outside but for some reason some memory was making his feel hot.

_(Hitting the peak… few more days and the drizzle would come, it always came) _Tony shook his head and snatched his cell up.

It was an unknown number but he still answered because he was sure he did know it.

"DiNozzo" Tony stated in a breathy tone not even realising he was holding his breath and not even understanding why he would.

"_Tony" _a ghost like voice questioned- no not ghost like but past voice. It was a voice you vaguely remembered but couldn't put a face too… at least not straight away.

"Yeah" Tony greeted turning half way to ignore the stares he was getting from his team mates.

"_Tony… in-in-in-it's me" _a stuttering voice declared causing Tony to frown, he didn't know anyone who stuttered, he was sure but even then he couldn't swear to god that he didn't.

He felt he should know someone who stuttered or at least did.

"I'm sorry do I know you" Tony questioned more sweat rolling down the small of his back. This is normal… a normal conversation with probably an old college friend who thought to look up old friends.

If that was true why did a ball knotted thousands of times of nerves settled into his stomach.

"_No you shouldn't… but I guess you will soon… remember Maine, remember Derris" _the voice asked with a chuckle, not one filled with humour but one filled with bitterness and tiredness.

The briefest of ideas flashed through Tony's head as the voice declared he shouldn't but he soon would… a threat maybe… revenge probably but Maine and Derris was enough to drive that out the window.

Those two words were enough to burst through the doors and windows and start to clear the fog away.

_(we puh-puh-puh-promise) _Tony's tongue felt like it had swollen up enough with water to fill his mouth but didn't leave any behind to relieve his scratching dry throat.

"_Tony" _a sudden desperation filled the voice and Tony realised he hadn't spoken for more then three minutes.

"Huh-huh" he muttered unable to voice anything else.

"_It's me tuh-tuh-Tony… it's Gill" _"Jefferson" Tony filled in knowing the name too well, hell he had all but craved that name into a tree outside the kitchen window with his own until his father pointed out that it would incriminate the boys. At least in Mrs DiNozzo's eyes.

"_You remember" _Gill questioned with surprise and joy all rolled into one. Tony nodded despite knowing that Gill couldn't see him but knowing he would no doubt expect it.

"Not at first… but I did, why didn't I before" Tony asked wondering how he could ever forget Gill Jefferson the second in command of the Outsider's club… the brother Tony never had.

"_you know why… or at least you will" _Gill declared as Tony thought on this for a moment and another part of the fog cleared.

"Derris" Tony questioned as Gill laughed again with no humour but neither bitterness either just tiredness.

_(a lighthouse keeper gets tired too) _Tony smiled a little at this thought, they had all left- the outsiders club- at one point but Gill, hadn't they known that he would remain.

He documented everything, it was his hobby but it was more then that.

Hadn't Tony told him that he was never leaving Derris because even when… even when what? Tony couldn't remember but he knew that Gill wouldn't -couldn't- leave Derris because it wasn't meant to be.

"_Derris is always here Tony… even in you it wah-wah-wah-was there, just waiting… sleeping" _Gill cut himself off then and Tony even though not understanding why just knowing that the last part wasn't about Derris-not the town- anymore.

"It's been what ten… no wait twenty years" "_Thirty years tuh-tuh-tuh-tony… thirty years, but you knew that didn't you" _Gill half questioned half stated and Tony knew it was true.

1979...1949...1919...1889...1859 "It's great to hear from Gill, you gotten old and wrinkly" Tony joked but the fear was chocking him. He didn't know what he was afraid of… it wasn't Gill, never Gill but something… maybe something about Derris or something that happened was scaring him enough to want to slam the cell down and tell Gibbs he was sick.

The fear receded then… Gibbs, McGee… Ziva, they were real they were here… they were grown up. Tony wanted to scream that, he was grown up but the fog wasn't leaking out of the windows anymore. It was pouring out the door to the bigger part of the house.

It would take over soon enough… it would be a fog house.

"_Tony remember we puh-puh-puh-promised… didn't we? In the drizzle, we promised to come back, finish what we started… finish" _"IT" Tony finished knowing that Gill could never finish that word… not the adult Gill but the eleven year old boy, the boy who would peek a look over his horn rimmed glasses and smirk when Tony was a smart ass.

_(They all float Tony… we all float… you'll float too) _Tony shook the voice away and clawed to hold onto Gill.

"I remember… Lucky seven, magnificent seven" Tony repeated to his ears he was sure he sounded like an eleven year old boy instead of the grown man he really was.

_(You'll never grow up Tony… don't you want that Tony, stay young be a smart ass… isn't that what you've become Tony… a smart ass) _

"_We knew back then it wouldn't stop… we hurt in-in-in-IT but we didn't stop IT" _Gill admitted echoing the fear Tony knew was building in him.

"Finish what we started… finish IT… is that what your telling me" Tony questioned dropping his tone a little when he saw Ziva looking at him from the corner of his eye.

They wouldn't understand… hell he didn't even understand fully but he would-at least he would- and wasn't that what mattered in all this.

"_Yes… IT's back… IT's hun-hun-hun-hunting again, in-in-in-IT's finished sleeping and IT's mad" _Gill declared as Tony lent back in his chair feeling a lot older then his years.

_Thirty years older in fact… they all aged but IT didn't, IT never would. _

"_Say you'll come back Tony… puh-puh-puh-promise you'll come back" _Gill pleaded and though Tony debated hanging up once more he felt himself nodding a small part of him overjoyed that Gill couldn't see him agreeing.

But Tony heard the yes a spilt second to late… but didn't he know already that no matter what he was going back. He would have to go back to Derris some time… they hadn't killed it but they did hurt IT and IT was pissed.

"_I didn't wah-wah-wah-want to call, I didn't but… but…" _"we promised… we all promised" Tony finished hearing the sigh.

After a few more seconds he could see it all so clearly, the town he had spent six years of his life between the ages of eight and thirteen. A place that this morning he couldn't remember and even doubted existed.

_(All things come back to Derris) _Tony knew this to be truebut the grownup in him screamed it's protest.

"_I've called Teddy, he took it bad but… I'll tell you all, everyone of us when you come back" _Gill admitted but Tony already knew that there wouldn't be seven of them this time… he couldn't say it out loud or even really focus on the feeling but something surfacing from the fog was already telling him that it wouldn't be seven it would only be six… and when this was all over it might not even be that amount anymore either.

_You'll float down here too Tony… all of you will float… because they float too… do you want a balloon Tony? They float… all the balloon's float. _

"I'll be there" Tony declared firmly even when the laughter of a mad man-no monster- trickled it's way into the house using the fog as cover.

Tony would be there but so would IT… IT was always there sometimes hunting and sometimes IT was sleeping but IT was always there because somehow and in some twisted way IT was Derris and Derris was IT.

"_we'll beat in-in-in-IT this time woa-woa-woa-won't we Tony" _Gill the eleven year old questioned already it seemed slipping back into his role of second of command.

They had their places mapped out for them long before they even knew what was going to happen that summer.

"I hope s- yeah, yeah we're going to beat IT" Tony assured biting back the words of doubt, he never showed doubt when he was eleven years old and he wouldn't show it now.

He wasn't just the leader of the outsider club… no he couldn't be classed as a leader nor a hero but he was the head of it all… Gill the eyes seeing everything.

_(but what about the rest Tony boy… you can't have a head and eyes without a body and what about a mouth and ears and a heart? It would be silly to live without a heart Tony… but you come down here you see what it's like not to have a heart… maybe you'll have a balloon instead of a heart… puffing, puffing, puffing then pop… goes the heart) _

Tony gripped his cell hard enough to hear the casing groan under the pressure. IT never let them leave Derris or at least they never left Derris behind. IT was apart of Derris… Derris was apart of IT.

"_See you soon tuh-tuh-tuh-Tony" _Gill said and though Tony heard some distant grown up voice repeat the sentiment he was still shocked when Gill hung up and Tony was sat listening to the dial tone.

_Come on Tony… come on down, I don't mind… I like's me a party… and boy did we party, but I have a party favour this time. A kids party is my specialty but I willing to do some tricks just for you grown ups. _

Tony carefully closed his cell phone and slipped into his pocket and just as carefully he pulled his gun from the draw and slipped that too into his pocket. With just as much grace he rose to his feet numbly aware he was doing this.

It was the half waking feeling that smothers you in those moments you leave the dream world back to the real world.

Only this time he wasn't waking up… the dream was slipping away and he would be entering a nightmare.

_A night mare… ha ha… you wish Tony boy… down here nightmares aren't left in the dark… down here the nightmares are the dark…I'm the dark Tony… I float Tony… they'll float too… just like you… just like all the kids. _

_You've got nothing to save you now Tony… silver won't work… crosses won't work… I'm the bogeyman and I'm just waiting to eat you all up. _

Tony ignored the looks Ziva and McGee were sending him, he was barely aware that he was now standing in front of Gibbs.

_You'll float too Tony_

"I've got to go boss" Tony heard the grown up voice but knew it wasn't his… it wouldn't be his for twenty eight years.

Some part of him-probably all of him- was somewhere else… no not somewhere else but rather some other time.

_Don't ya want to float Tony_

"What are you talking about DiNozzo" Gibbs demanded no matter how angry he wanted to show he was he couldn't mask the concern.

Tony didn't have to look in a mirror (though he would probably be shocked at the older face staring back at himself) to know he looked like he had stared death in the face and laughed before the scythe swung.

_Oh you'll float… ya'll float down here_

"Promised… I have to go back… promises made promises to keep" Tony didn't know this foreign tongue residing in his mouth he just knew that it was trying to make them understand he was already gone.

Leave a message after the beep… I'll get back to you in 2009… thanks for calling.

_You'll never leave again Tony boy… just like me… you'll stay down here if you come back…in the dark. _

"You aren't going anywhere Tony" Gibbs was full of fear now but Tony couldn't latch on to it… he was a drowning man, his sight set on the boyar but always just falling inches flat of it, no matter how hard he swum.

_Paddle… paddle as fast as you can little man… never swim on a full stomach young man. Empty… you have to be empty to float. Not down here though… be as full as you want Tony because you'll float down here. _

Gibbs protested but Tony was gone… back in time a time where Gibbs, Ziva, McGee, Abby, Jenny and Ducky didn't exist not yet.

The dream world drifted over Tony because he couldn't remember the moment he turned and walked to Sheppard's office nor could he even tell anyone how he convinced her that he had to leave.

She must have seen his face… took in the expression now etched across his face. Tony DiNozzo was already gone.

Lights are on but I'm afraid no one is home right now.

_Do ya want a balloon Tony… ah gone on you know you want one… just reach out a little more and you can have a whole bunch of them. _

_Do ya want a balloon Tony? _

Tony was heading out… not to a destination on any map but to a time… to the summer of 1979 when seven children stood in a circle and promised to come back.

Summer of 1979 when the outsiders club faced a monster and won-even if only briefly- back to a summer where Tony DiNozzo understood that sometimes kids didn't grow up.

They floated forever.

* * *

Chapter one all done... hope you like it if you ever get to this point.


	3. Steady Teddy

Thanks for the reviews... I should clear a few things up, Though this is based in Stephen king's book IT, the events that happened didn't take place in Derry, Maine. The town of Derris, Maine is a tribuite of sorts... as are a few names like 'Steady' Teddy in this chapter... you may reconginze him as Stan the man Uris (minus the wife) and Gill Jefferson with his stuttering is based on Bill Denbough (I think I've misspelled the last name there).

The chief of police during Tony's childhood had the last name Uris... Thanks to Rodney Mckay, I'm glad there is a die hard fan of Stephen King reading this.

There will be a lot of references to the book but for the most part IT never went to Derry and it never met the loser club.

Sorry for the confusion hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Chapter two

Summer 2009, New York, NY

Quitting time always drove it home to him that he had made it, it wouldn't be until the moment he crossed that threshold to his uptown and upscale apartment that he was on the ladder to being better off then his parents.

_(bad thoughts from a bad boy) _a voice, a saying from a long time ago… a time hidden in fog.

Teddy Kovak told himself as the key slid easily into the lock and with a satisfying clung the dead bolt was thrown back from it's secure housing.

The smell of fresh and cleanleness washed over him, he removed his shoes before even stepping inside.

_(Steady Teddy… always neat always ready… always rotten) _Teddy held back the growl as he shook the thoughts away.

His crisp black socks cooled against the wooden floor as he walked in to the hallway, arranging his shoes on the floor mat that stood beside the door. Second came closing the door and making sure the lock was set securely back in it's previous place before he neatly hung his sports jacket on one of the many steel hooks that lined the wall beside him.

Metal was easier to clean, his momma had told him that years ago while she was still able to remember who he was, even who she was.

He strolled along the hallway, noting everything in it's place just as he had left it. Turning right he walked into the living room just to find everything as he left it. Neat and Tidy.

Steady Teddy.

Turning sharply round he didn't bother to turn left instead he walked across the neat hallway and stepped into the kitchen to find it just as neat and tidy as he had left it… he almost laughed when he almost added that dear old Mrs Keys was stood at the stove with the old steamer kettle tea cup waiting just like he had left her this morning.

Truth was Mrs Keys had in fact been the person behind the reason his apartment was spotless and well kept.

Another thing to prove he was doing well… better then his parents.

_(bad thoughts means your rotten to the core… rotten boys always) _Teddy grinned at Mrs Keys instead of shaking his head.

"Hey Mrs Keys, everything ok" Teddy questioned pulling himself gracefully up onto the stool at the breakfast bar.

Mrs Keys face had been weather by time, determination and hard work. She had reminded him very much of his momma, a hard woman but fair.

There was a woman before Mrs Keys who lasted two weeks… she reminded him of his gammy.

_(bad thoughts… rotten boys) _Mrs Keys suited him just fine.

"Fine Mr. Kovak… why shouldn't things be ok" her clipped voice shot out at him and an instinct reared up in him and he flinched back.

She was like his momma… but his momma could be like his gammy too sometimes.

"No never have been" Teddy spluttered and wondered when his mother was going to spin round and glare at him. She didn't tell him he was rotten but he knew she would think it.

_(Steady Teddy… always so neat, so tidy… just because he was rotten… everything you touch turns rotten… just like pops) _but Mrs Keys turned and he didn't see his mother or his gammy.

Determination, time and hard work.

"How was work" Mrs Keys asked speaking loud enough to be heard over the screaming the steam being released but then again she didn't even seem to do that.

Thinking the pre-programmed response was to appease her with the shorten version of his day, everything went well.

He reframed from telling her that he had been short tempered a lot more then usual… like something was poking at him but he couldn't quiet reach the annoying object. He reframed from telling her that he had hauled his phone against the wall causing his assistant to rush in and ask he what the matter was. He had lied then before he carefully picked up his phone and placed it back on his desk and spent the next thirty minutes clearing his office for no real reason.

"glad to hear it" Mrs Keys snipped before turning back to the kettle as it reached it's peak.

_(things always rot around the peak of summer… it was the heat, it just turned things rotten) _Teddy furrowed his brow as he heard the hot liquid spilled into the cups waiting ready.

No matter what the little voice prickled at his mind _it wasn't the heat that turned things rotten…_

But before he could focus on that one thought it slipped by and Teddy found himself smiling brightly when Mrs Keys placed his cup of tea-black with two and half measured spoons of sugar- in front of him and settled in front of the counter slowly sipping her tea.

"You had three phone calls today… I've written them all down for you" Mrs Keys informed him as she retrieved the notepad from beside the kitchens cordless phone and handed them to Teddy.

He took them with another smile before glancing down… Ryan Kindle a business partner, scribbled in Mrs Keys' handwriting declaring that he would phone back. No doubt talking about his latest girlfriend trouble.

Jenny Andrews was questioning him when he was going to call her back. Teddy hated that one little fact he had blown her off and there was nothing neat and tidy about that.

_(Steady Teddy… always rotten) _

The third caused him to place the cup down with a bang… not strong enough to break the cup but loud enough to make Mrs Keys to jump.

Three words written in Mrs Keys perfectly crafted handwriting.

_Gill Jefferson- Derris_

No, Teddy started to chant that word in his head… unlike Tony he didn't need a phone call or even the few kick starts to remember that terrible year.

1979 had scarred him deep enough even the lightest of touches would bring it all tumbling back.

It wasn't the fog that cleared instead inside 'Steady' Teddy Kovak's mind a dam tumbled down and the water-muddy, dirty and not nice- flooded the whole town.

_Oh how rotten you are Teddy… boys are rotten but you are rotten to the core. Come back here and you see how rotten you are. _

IT's voice had always lingered in his nightmares… the sort of nightmares that fled the moment sunlight hit your face.

But IT was always there just like IT promised… promises.

Hadn't he promised just like the rest of them that he would come back if IT came back. Well the only reason Gill ever had to call them was to bring them back, the memories the promise the outsiders club.

IT had come back and he knew they had only made it more madder then IT already was.

_Oh how mad you made me Teddy… but it doesn't matter because I always knew how rotten you were. _

_Jenny knew… Momma knew… but it was gammy that tried to beat it out of you. The bathtub, the sharp sting of iodine when it burned your delicate flesh. _

Mrs Keys saw his face and questioned him but Teddy was already gone… not back to Summer 1979 but back to the bathtub when his gammy found him apparently enjoying himself too much.

_Rotten boy… always rotten, can't beat the rot completely out have to burn the rot… burn the rot. _

It couldn't happen again… and what if it was happening again they were too old to deal with IT. They only hurt IT twenty eight years ago because they were kids, they could believe in magic and monsters.

"Don't disturb me for a few moments" Teddy ordered gracefully getting to his feet and turned heading to the living room. Deep down he knew he would never go back, even back then in his child like mind he knew that when he promised that he would come back that he never would.

IT knew it too… so what did it matter if IT had come back he wasn't going back, he couldn't because going back would mean going back to the place where he wasn't neat and tidy.

_Come back Teddy… oh steady teddy, always neat and tidy… come back here and you will be rotten on the outside just like inside._

Of course it matter, Teddy thought as he weaved his way to the large window overlooking the busiest street along the block. The cars honked and broke loud enough for Teddy to hear just them and that voice.

It mattered because Teddy was still apart of it… he always would be just like the rest of them.

But what if he wasn't… what if he wasn't apart of it all, he could escape it all with just… what? Just what?

Teddy already knew the answer, it was in the IT's laughter, that maddening sound that turned any sane man insane.

Teddy understood why none of them went insane… children still had the power to ration things away with magic and heroes and monsters.

_Come down here Teddy… come down and you'll float… don't ya want to float steady teddy… it can be neat and tidy. _

The window gave a screech of protest moving from it's place without being oiled first. It was something small and tiny but it was enough to set the tumbling motion of the walls. It had been neat and tidy until that summer in 1979 when things became rotten.

_Don't ya want to float Teddy boy… their all going to float down here… but you don't have to float down here. You can be steady Teddy all neat and tidy… don't show how rotten you are_

Some part of him-that long lost eleven year old- was screaming at him that it was wrong… it wasn't neat and tidy, breaking promises wasn't neat and tidy.

Teddy felt the muggy heat wash over his face, the foul stench of car exhaust, cigarettes, sweat and something more dirty then all three burning his nose.

_Burn the rot out…beating didn't get it all out… not completely. _

IT had started it but right now… with his own mind he could end it, yes Steady Teddy Kovak… the boy-not man- his momma taught to be neat the boy his gammy tried to make less rotten the boy whose father couldn't care enough about him when he hung himself could make sure this part would stay neat and tidy.

Teddy didn't make a noise, didn't call out, didn't scream, didn't cry out when his feet met thin air.

If he did scream at any point he couldn't hear it above the whizzing of air rushing and popping his ears.

An upscale apartment was never on the ground floor… his gammy lived in a ground floor apartment. He had to do better then them… he just had too.

Hadn't he done better, hadn't he escaped it all when he made the big bucks.

_Oh you made it big Steady Teddy… you made it big… just like the big messy and dirty mess your going to make._

Teddy managed to hitch in a breath just in time for the scream when the side walk loomed up at him.

He wasn't going to be neat and tidy… he was going to be messy and dirty.

_Ha ha you'll float but not forever not like the others… steady teddy… now their all going to see how rotten you really are. _

The scream drowned out the sound his body made when it hit the dirty, hot and hard floor. But it didn't drown out that laugh… that monster's laugh from the drain close to his head.


	4. Kimberly Sutton nee Lance

Chapter three

Summer 2009, Rhode Island, New England

The years were good to her… everyone said so, and she had expected it because she had taken after her father and not her mother.

By the thirty five mark her mother was weathered and looked twenty years older but her father… he was always the lean and heavy man he had been in his mid twenties.

Over the years the only thing that ever gave him away was his white curls lingering among his jet black hair.

_(Daddies little girl… daddies little princess… daddies little whore) _screwing her emerald eyes shut she blocked her mothers voice out. She would always block that voice out.

Kimberly Sutton nee Lance spun her face away from the mirror and slowly stood from the vanity sitting in her cream lonely bedroom.

It had been five years since the death of her loving husband… yes her loving husband she never dare say anything bad against him before and after his death.

He was so much like daddy… that was why Kim loved him, because he knew how to handle her, just like her daddy.

If she got her self worked up a slap was enough to bring her back… it only hurt for a few days. That wasn't wrong, no it wasn't… she wasn't a victim because it wasn't all the time.

When she spoke back to him in front of their friends (more times when they were alone) he would remind her he was a man… her man… and he needed to be respected.

Just like daddy.

When she forgot to call home it made him worry just like daddy and she needed to be reminded that he worried… just like daddy.

When some other man thought to flirt and check her out and she carried on smiling wasn't it his right to show them all-including her- who Kim belonged to.

Just like daddy… but back then Kim was both uneasy and grateful about the fact that her daddy still thought of her as his.

Yes Oliver Sutton was a great man just like Joseph Lance… they both knew how to handle a girl- later woman- like Kimberly Sutton nee Lance.

A trembling sigh spilled from her lips when her eyes finally opened and she padded out of her bedroom down the stairs towards the living room and the drinks cart.

She had met Oliver when she was barely twenty after she had escaped… frowning Kim shook her head stepping of the bottom step and turned left into the living room.

_Escaped that's silly… why would I need to escape daddy… not just daddy but somewhere as well. _

Kim chewed her lower lip an annoying habit Oliver hated but could never rid her self of… a reflex from her childhood she always told him.

_But your not a child anymore Kimmy… are you, no your hips are too big and god damn sexy to be a child. Your tits are too big and firm to be some half pints chest. Your lips are too inviting to be some snot nose kid. _

Kim tired to smile fondly at the memory… Oliver hadn't taught her lesson that night instead he simply just shook his head and patted his knee. Oliver did love her, just in a special way… the hard way that made him want to make her better to be better just like daddy.

_But daddy didn't mind that my hips were too small or that my chest was just starting to grow and he didn't mind that my lips didn't plumb out until I turned fourteen. No daddy didn't mind that at all-_

Kim growled but didn't reach for the brandy… her hands were trembling far too much for that. Instead she moved over to the window to watch the street lights and the growing darkness.

her father never laid a finger on her… not in the sense a grown man might lay a finger on a woman. The grown up's dance… the grown up's way her mother tried to explain to her when she was ten.

_But hadn't you seen it then the look in her eyes when she explained that way that a man and woman -only a man and woman- could touch each other. Didn't you see how her eyes flickered for the briefest moment towards her father's work shop while he tinkered and toyed with some latest gadget before they locked firmly on yours. _

Kim blew out the stale breath she was holding and hopefully the stale memories that was clogging up her mind.

That's all they were really just memories some so faded she wasn't even sure they were memories more like dreams.

_Kids can dream… that's what make them strong… that's what made us strong against- against what?_

Kim tried to clutch to that fleeting thought but didn't try to hard because she knew she would only gain a headache for her troubles.

_Just like the headaches that cursed her when she was thirteen as they settled into their new home in Rhode Island. The doctors didn't understand but they never said that instead they told her that it was just the beginnings of her becoming a young woman. _

Kim tore her eyes away from the lights knowing that if she stared too long her head would ache and she would crawl into bed for a good three days. Chuckling Kim knew that if that happened Glory would throw a hissy fit, a model couldn't just not turn up during the most important shows.

_Bet your dollar butt._

"We used to say that all the time… all of us" Kim declared the empty air surrounding Oliver's lone armchair.

Kim stood frozen… not because she reminded her self that Oliver wouldn't be in the chair he would never be in that chair again but because she had no idea who 'we' used to be.

nor did she know why any one would say such a childish thing either.

_Because we were kids… because it was funny… because the grown ups didn't understand. _

Kim pushed through the freeze and headed towards the drink cart once more, stating to herself and the ghost Oliver had left that she would have one drink only one because any more then that then Oliver would have to teach her a lesson.

_Just like daddy… but daddy was dead. _

Not fully understand why her hands trembled Kim sloshed half the amber liquid onto the cart and nearly all of her glass onto the floor as she swallowed the burning liquid in one go.

It didn't help numb anything… not that digging feeling when things were being moved around her clogged mind.

Memories too big and bulky to be placed at the top of the pile started to move and rearrange themselves. It was hurting her but they were still pushing and still moving around disturbing both the good times and the bad times with Oliver.

Before Kim could even refill her glass -which would be unlikely on the first try- the phone rang sharply in the dark air and forced Kim to freeze once more. She stared at the black phone for a long time, time enough for any normal caller to give up and just hang up and try again later.

But she knew even as her trembling hands reached for the phone that it wasn't a normal caller… this wasn't going to be some normal routine daily call but something from some other time.

"Hello" her timid voice echoed down the line as her throat restricted her self and the brandy burned and pushed it's way back up from her stomach.

"_Ke-Ke-Ke-Kimmy" _a stuttering voice spilled out causing Kim to straighten enough for her back to pop.

Her eyes were growing wide even as she placed the glass carefully back down, her hands no longer trembled. They weren't her hands any more- at least they wouldn't be her hands for another twenty eight years.

"_Kimmy Lance" _the voice repeated once more and Kim snapped off her answer without even thinking… flinching a little like Oliver's ghost could hear this voice too and that he would have to teach her a lesson.

Just like daddy.

"Kimberly Sutton" Kim shook her head, the woman's voice didn't sound like her and that name sure in heck didn't sound right to her.

"_Su-su-su-su-sorry… you got married" _the voice admitted lightly a chuckle hidden in the folds of the tone.

Kim's back relaxed and a feeling of happiness long forgotten washed over her. Bet your dollar but… I want to get married.

"Do I know you mister" "_bet your dollar butt" _she knew he wouldn't stutter much more… he hardly did around them… around her.

"I remember… no… I can't… I couldn't" Kim stopped her self and she knew the reason he didn't speak long after that was because he knew she was remembering. Maybe not all of it like Tony but enough to know that the tears was falling because she did forget him… and not just him but all six of the others.

She had forgotten them but why… how could she… they were her friends… they were her first true loves all of them.

Tony, Gill, Teddy, Stevie, Kenny and Marty were all her first true loves… not the men- she would love the men too- but the boys she had met and stood by in the summer of 1979.

The summer of IT.

"Gill" she whispered her face lighting up as the memories of that summer pushed their way forward dusty for sure but still in tact.

"_Hey ke-ke-ke-Kimmy… I'm sure glad you remembered me" _Gill stated as hope, joy and relief washed through his voice.

How could she ever forgot them… how could she ever forget IT.

_Because we have too… we have to forget because if we don't we can't come back… we can't keep the promise. _

"Oh god Gill… why couldn't I remember you… any of you" Kim pleaded trying hard to control the sobs breaking her voice.

"_Derris" _That one word uttered by Gill was enough to spread a cold dread through out her as the memories unclogged themselves and rearranged to provide a tidy pathway straight back in time.

1979.

"IT made us forget didn't IT… we had to forget didn't we Gill" Kim sobbed even as her knees weakened but she never fell… not because the ghost of a man who was so much like her daddy… the man she hated, feared and loved at the same time was holding her up but because six boys from the past were now climbing out of the memories and were holding her up in a circle.

_not six any more Kimmy… just five… it can't be the seven anymore just the six of you. _

"_not all of it ke-ke-ke-Kimmy… IT couldn't do all that but yes you had to forget, all of you had to forget when you left because it was the only way. Remember Tony telling us that, telling us why you all had to forget" _Gill stated as Kim nodded wiping the tears away.

_Why forget Kimmy… why forget IT when you feared IT so much… the way it promised you… it promised all of you that you would all float. Do you still want to float Kimmy. _

"Tony… oh god… Gill we promised… we promised Tony we would come back, finish IT" Kimmy stated no longer the woman she would be come but the eleven year old girl with jet black hair that helped hide her away from the world.

Helped hide away the bruises, helped hide away the fact she came from the poor district.

Kimmy Lance didn't have a pot to piss in did she… the other girls had stated so, so it had to be true.

"_I know… I we-we-we-wished I didn't have to call you… to make you remember but you have to… we all have to remember because IT's back" _Gill told her gravely but Kimmy already knew this.

She had known it back then, even as they fled from the sewers they would go back and finish IT for good. It was their duty that they could never understand but still took regardless.

"I know… you wouldn't have called us if IT hadn't come back… you had to watch Gill, we left you behind because you had to watch and wait until IT woke again… didn't you Gill? You were the last to see IT" Kim stated as the memory partially unfolded to give her a better glimpse into the past.

"_In the end yu-yu-yu-yeah I was, but we knew back then I was always gu-gu-gu-going to stay" _Gill told her as Kim nodded. Though none of them spoke the words out loud they all knew it had to be Gill who stayed behind who waited for IT to wake.

_It wasn't just his hobby to note things down… it was his duty, we have our duties. _

"Have you called them" Kim questioned already mentally packing ready to go back in time, the packing list had always been their stashed away in one of the boxes, she had wrote it back when she was eleven years old.

"_Tony's already on his way… Teddy… I'll tell you later, Stevie didn't like it but he's on his woa-woa-woa-way Marty and Kenny are ne-ne-ne-next" _Gill informed her as Kim nodded already pushing the ghost of Oliver back into his chair.

_I did love you Oliver… I always will but you can't boss me around anymore… because you weren't there… you wasn't there in that circle in 1979 when we faced IT. Your not daddy._

"Then I'm coming too… god how many Gill… how many before you were sure" Kim didn't want to ask that question but she knew she had to just to make sure that it was IT and not some flesh and blood mad man.

"_th-th-th-ten" _Gill spluttered out but hadn't Kim already knew IT had come back, she didn't need to ask the number to justify that feeling of dread and purpose.

IT had come back and now they had to go back too.

"I'll be there first thing tomorrow you can bet your dollar butt" Kim stated feeling slightly better when Gill chuckled. So many things lost from that happier time.

Though she wouldn't remember fully until she stepped back into Derris she knew enough to know that 1979 hadn't been all that scary… most of it was happy, the way they would hang out the way they made each other feel less like outsiders, like they belonged there together.

_But you don't belong here princess… daddies little girl… daddies little princess… daddies little whore escaped once before. You fled why do you need to come back now. _

It wasn't her mothers voice-at least not completely- it was Oliver's voice too and her father's. she shivered but the eleven year old in her wouldn't fall back into old habits now, not like the grown woman would.

"I'll be there" Kim stated again knowing Gill would understand it wasn't him she was telling but the ghosts… the ghosts that had haunted her for the past ten (and five) years.

They weren't real anymore… they had no hold over her.

_But isn't that worse… because ghosts can go places the real people can't… where they shouldn't go. Don't the ghosts float… do you want to float Kimmy… just like daddy, just like mommy… just like Oliver. _

_Do you want to float down here with them… you can be taught your lessons down here Kimmy. Is that what you want… they know how to handle a girl like you. _

Gill said his goodbyes but Kim was already moving, heading up the stairs. It took her only twenty minutes to gather her suitcase and pack her clothes that on reflection didn't really belong to a woman but in fact belonged to an eleven year old girl.

By the time she stood at the front door she had some where in the haze of her hurry called for a cab and was checking the last of her documents into her purse slinging it over her shoulder.

_Where you think your going girl… you damn best come back here_

"I have to see my friends dad-" Kim cut her self off mid turn, shaking she turned to the stairs waiting to see her father looming at the top with 'paying hell time' writing across his lean, handsome but grim face.

_Ha-ha friends… you call those boys your friends Kimmy… you ain't got no friends that give two damn shitty cents about you. Those boys only want one thing._

Oliver had joined her father's voice and Kim pressed her self against the door waiting for the pair to arrive at the top of the stairs each waiting to teach her a lesson.

Shaking her head she snapped out of the waking nightmare when the cab honked from the street, she spun and tore the door open not even bothering to close it just fleeing towards the cab.

As she slipped into the backseat and all but bellowed the order to drive to the airport she dared to glance back to the house just in time to see the door close. She hadn't even bother to check if all the windows were closed. Any rational person would have done that and if they hadn't they would tell you that the door closed because a window was still open.

But Kim knew better… it was Oliver and her father in some lesser sense and when -or if- she came back then they would have to teach her a lesson.

_Don't worry about calling darling… I don't have to worry because I'll be seeing you… you'll be coming down here where we are… you'll be floating too. _

_And those boys too… you'll all float down her Kimmy… just like the daddies little girl… just like daddies little princess… just like daddies little whore will. _

_Don't ya want to float Kimmy? _

* * *

Just two more to go and then it's of to face IT and for the rest of the NCIS to turn up too... thanks for the reviews.


	5. Loudmouth Stevie

Chapter four

Summer 2009, Los Angeles, CA

Pushing and shoving his way to the front had always seemed to be Stevie Thompson way of life. He had to push and shove his way through acting school and then through auditions (sometimes he didn't have to push and shove).

Some would say anyone turning up on a Greyhound from Maine with the idea of becoming rich and famous should just wait there turn just like the other hundred of thousands with the same idea. But it hadn't been completely that way with Stevie, in fact some might say he had it pretty easy.

He didn't come from a rich family but he didn't come from a poor family either… they were well off enough for a doctor, his wife and their only son.

Stevie always told the joke on stage that his father looked over his out of date glasses and under the weight of his bushy eyebrows with a look of horror and despair when his only son -a lanky, underweight and overly excited son- exclaimed he was going to make it rich and famous.

The truth was his father simply looked over his very modern glasses and under no weight of his thin eyebrows simply shrugged and said what ever made him happy before turning back to his paper.

Stevie's mother on the other hand had laughed and said he should rid himself of such ideas and carry on with his studies to follow his father.

Stevie didn't always remember much about his childhood at least around the age of eleven but he knew enough that his parents were mild manner, his father planted his paper on Stevie's backside only when needed which was rarely and his mother had this dreamy 1950's view on how a boy should grow up to follow in his father's footsteps.

When Stevie landed his first role on some short lived kids programmed back when he was the wise (mostly foolish) age of twenty one he had called his parents who both said they didn't expect anything less then their son to get what he wanted.

Stevie was on a high for the next decade… that was until he was being interviewed and asked where his sense of humour came from.

"_Is your father a funny man… does he have a good sense of humour" Stevie without a blink of an eye laughed shaking his head. _

"_MY FATHER… gawd that man wouldn't know good sense of humour if it slapped him round the backs of his head and bellowed down his ear 'ello ole chum… ain't see you for dear gawd time'" Stevie declared finishing to a roar at laughter to his English accent. _

His father had phoned him that night and stated he had a good sense of humour enough to fly down to LA and tan his hide… just not a good enough bank account to do so.

Things were fine until five years later when Stevie found out with not a shred of laughter that his father had passed away.

He found it a lot harder to be funnier after that, he still did his job but he was told a face of a sad man wasn't for the screens but his voice was another matter and cartoons soon boasted the fact that they had the Stevie Thompson.

Stevie made it to his dressing room with less pushing and shoving then he needed to today, a niggling feeling making him think that there was a reason for that.

Like he had to be in his dressing room at this time… but no matter how much he pushed and shoved to understand why he couldn't grasp that understand.

Slumping into his seat the vast bottles of clear liquid dazzled back at him, the hard stuff had been done away with many years ago.

Exactly two years after his father's death, Stevie didn't get the connection between alcohol and his father death for a little while. He guess he didn't want to because it numbed the pain and anything that could numb that pain that came with the father sized hole in his heart was good enough for the loudmouth Stevie Thompson.

It wasn't until his mother had all but slapped him around the face that he sobered up despite half the bottle of whiskey and the five shots of brandy in him he had still sobered up.

"So this is it from now on ole chum… just me and good H2O gover'na" Stevie chirped in his British clipped accent.

_H2O helps us all float… even in the dark we float… you'll be floating too Stevie. _

Stevie shook the voice away and snatched a bottle of water up and drained half the bottle in one go… if it had been air instead of water he was sure he would have drowned by now.

_Breath down deep Stevie… Loudmouth Stevie always got words to say but never any ideas. _

Stevie snapped the thought off with the cap to his bottle of water and slammed it down harder then he needed to.

He was tired… yeah that was it he was tired he had been working on his guest spot on the Simpson's as some loudmouth brut.

It was a good step if you were appearing on that show but it still demanded a lot out of him making him think back to the gruelling hours spent in some dank studio for going on eighteen hours because the up shot of a director didn't like the way you pronounced the word 'the'.

_I'm going to be big… so damn big that this town is gonna have to watch where I'm treading. _

Stevie tilted the corner of his thin lips up a little even though he didn't even know who said those words.

Rubbing the heels of his palms into his eyes he tried to rub some unknown force from his head… it wasn't a headache and it sure wasn't tiredness. It was like the pain you get when you try hard to claw at a memory trying to place a face to a name or a name to a face but always coming up short.

It was the pain of a mind on over drive… ready to short out in a few moments just as a few letter trickled down close enough for you to touch.

But before his mind could shut down the room was filled with a shrill and he snapped his head and eyes towards his cell phone.

He had switched it off before heading out to the studio he was sure… but then again he was sure he had done a lot of things that he hadn't done.

Snatching the phone up not ready to be swamped with some uneasy feeling trying to hold him back from answering he didn't even check the number.

"'ello gover'na" he greeted with a half hearted smile flickering across his lips.

"_Stu-stu-stu-Stevie" _a voice questioned with the hint of humour to it's tone. Stevie furrowed his brow wondering why anyone who stuttered knew him… he would have made too big of a joke to be friends with someone like that.

It wasn't mean, he didn't mean to be hurtful it was just his big mouth that liked to run away before his mind could grab the harness.

"yu-yu-yu-yeah what can I do for ya fella" Stevie quipped leaning back in his chair with a grin forming on his lips. Not a man's grin but that of an eleven year old boy. It was an easy smile void of care or worry that a grown up might have.

A long silence stretched out before he heard a quivering breath.

"_You jerk" _there was nothing accusing or bitter about the tone of voice but humour and laughter could be heard.

"You 'tard" Stevie quipped before silence lingered for a moment before both Stevie and the caller fell into laughter.

Stevie was wiping the tears away from his eyes when he finally controlled him self but as he took his shaking breaths feeding his starving lungs something was already pushing and shoving it's way through his memories back to the summer of 1979.

"Gill" Stevie questioned despite the fact he was still smiling a cold dread was already engulfing his heart.

He knew a Gill Jefferson and someone else… no other people but he couldn't just name them yet but Gill's shaking breathing was enough to prove that he soon would remember them and he would have a hell of a time wondering why he would ever forget them.

"_yu-yu-yu-you made it big Stevie" _Gill stated as though he already knew that like he had always known that even before Stevie made it big.

"And your still stuttering… guess you can't teach old dogs new tricks" Stevie tried to remain light hearted. That was his job, to keep it light and airy… just like back then.

"_Your just as old stu-stu-stu-stu-Stevie" _Gill reminded as Stevie pushed back in his chair so he could patted his stomach loud enough for Gill to hear.

"Don't look a day over twenty five" Stevie declared smiling a lot more then he had done in along time. Given a few more years his already soft stomach will be offering shelter to his belt.

"_n-n-n-and I don't look a day over eighteen" _Gill retorted sending the pair back into a fit of laughter.

"I'm sure you don't partner" Stevie admitted smiling fondly at the memory of the seven of them… yes seven.

Tony, Gill, Stevie, Teddy, Marty, Kenny and Kimmy… all of them standing in circle holding on to each other promising. Promising something… Stevie couldn't latch on to what just yet, with a sinking feeling he knew he would.

_You don't sink down here Stevie… never sink only float… we all float down here, just like the balloons. Do you want to float Stevie. _

"Gill… why don't I remember" Stevie asked hearing the heaved sigh from the other end of the line. He remembered names, faces now but he put a stop to anymore shoving and pushing.

There was something he didn't want to remember. IT. He didn't want to remember IT whatever IT was.

"_Derris… Stu-stu-stu-stu-Stevie, none of you want to remember but you have to…in-in-in-IT's back" _Gill no longer sounded in good humour… in fact his voice sounded full of dread, fear and guilt.

_we felt guilty about leaving him behind but he felt guilty at having to stay behind because he knew he would make the calls. He would reach out to them and bring them back. _

"Don't feel guilty gover'na… ain't your fault or none" Stevie stated half aware that Gill hadn't stated his guilt but knowing he was feeling it.

"_Yu-yu-yu-yu-you always knew how to read me Stevie… I didn't want to call, any of you bu-bu-bu-but I had to" _Gill stated as Stevie nodded knowing that Gill couldn't see him but knowing that he would feel it… would see it in his minds eye.

_I'm the mouth… it's big enough to be a giants mouth. _

"Anyone else Gilly and I would tell them to get a big lemon… but you knew that I wouldn't say that didn't you" Stevie asked as he stood and gathered his stuff. He was already moving out of the dressing room and heading back home.

Not to his apartment overlooking the LA strip but back to Derris… back to IT.

"_yes… we're all coming bah-bah-bah-bah-back" _Gill told him but Stevie knew he was lying, Gill was always the easiest to read.

"Not all of us right-o Gilly… not seven anymore" Stevie stated already knowing the answer but unable to pinpoint who he meant.

"_Tony and Kimmy are heading down now… Marty right behind them" _Gill informed him as Stevie grasped the door handle but froze as though he had been given an electric shock.

_Steady Teddy floated Stevie… he floated oh so well… but he always did things oh so well didn't him. Steady Teddy, you called him that for a reason. Do you want to float just like steady Teddy Stevie… do you really want to float like him. _

"I'll be there… hell of thing it's gonna do but I'm coming" Stevie pushed the voice away and opened the door not stepping out into the hallway of the studio but stepping back into 1979.

Back to a time where his loud mouth didn't earn him bucks but instead earned him a few chuckles, a little respect and a hella lot of bruises.

Stevie Thompson was left behind with his dozen bottles of water, his father shaped hole in his heart and his big bucks. Loudmouth Stevie was now standing outside just waiting to grow up big so Derris would have to watch where he was walking.

Derris was waiting for him… but it wasn't Derris that was challenging him to come back and try but IT.

IT was telling him to come back and try and prove how big he was… IT was ready to prove Stevie wasn't half as big as he thought he was. None of them were.

"I'll speak to you soon Gilly, you 'tard" Stevie said as he moved towards the exit and 1979.

_Your going to float here Stevie… don't say I didn't warn you… I warned you all, ya'll gonna float. _

Well you sick son-of-bitch your gonna float too… we'll make sure of it this time… gover'na.


	6. Marty's ghosts

Chapter five

Summer 2009, Pittsburgh

The cigarette jittered as the flame rose to singe the tip, grey curls of smoke rose once the flame flickered out.

His hand shook too violently for him to enjoy his cigarette.

_Those things will kill… I'll beat sense in to you if I have to… god my poor little boy your too unwell to ever smoke those things. _

Marty Nicolas couldn't help but grin through his pale thin lips when his mother screeched through his mind. At the time he hadn't smile, he hadn't moved he was seven years old back then and had been cleaning up the front yard while his mother was work.

He didn't dare tell his mother that the grounds keeper paid him two bucks a pop to clear the small garden every Tuesday and Thursday.

Mother was at work from nine am till nine pm, but that day she had come home early, early enough to see him walking across the lawn stuffing two bucks into his pocket and throwing the last remains of waste into the bins that littered the side ally that stood to the right of the converted house.

Marty and his mother had the top apartment, two bedroom- which in those days was considered a luxury. Unfortunately the last thing Marty had picked up was a half pack of crushed cigarettes.

His mother screeched loud enough for Marty to be sure his delicate ears to pop. She half screamed half sobbed at him all the way up to the apartment under the watchful eye of the grounds keeper.

_if she could see me now_ Marty thought ruefully letting the trail of smoke escape from his mouth.

He hated the taste of cigarette the first time he tried them back when he was ten years old and he hated them now but unlike back then he had good enough reason to smoke. He didn't care if it killed him or not because he was pretty sure that what he was going to do next might just do that.

He laughed to himself wishing he meant his business wise he was walking to his death but he was sure he meant his physical death.

Inhaling another puff he pushed himself to his feet letting the black chair twirl a little before he grabbed his over night bag and headed to his private bathroom. He threw the half smoked cigarette into the toilet bowl and flushed. He took half a step when he turned and slammed the toilet seat down on second thought.

He opened the mirror cabinet above the sink and started grabbing bottles of painkillers, laxatives, cold creams, throat drops, eye drops, bite cream, nasal decongestant, Vic's rub, heat pads and his pump refills which took up all of the bottom shelf.

Mother would be proud, he had similar three cabinets in his home along with a plastic zip bag in his spare room and master bedroom. Anyone who had seen his bathroom stock would tell him he could put a few pharmacy's out of business if he had the mind to do it.

He didn't because his mind was focused solely on his thriving club AD.

Had been for going on eleven years… all it took was for his mother to die and a whole sum of money just left rotting. What started out as a few investments turned into a business idea which led to his own club.

But that was all going down the drains… because as of now his mind was focused on the club anymore it was focused on the summer of 1979.

He had smoked three cigarette's once he finished his phone call with his bar manager who didn't like the answers Marty had given him.

With three up coming bands booked to play in the club and ordering and the club being packed out for the past three weeks he wasn't sure he could do it with having to wonder if his boss was having a breakdown.

What club owner with a thriving business would take off for god knows how long and for some stupid reason like a promise made when he was eleven.

Marty Nicolas would that's who… who was now looking at himself in the mirror wondering when he got so old. To an eleven year old anyone over the age of twenty looked old.

He was still mousy looking just a lot taller then he was eleven years old.

But wasn't that better this time round to be bigger then he was when he was eleven. Back then IT seemed so much bigger and so much more scary.

Marty didn't laugh he couldn't because even it was a funny grown up thing to think the truth was IT was always going to be bigger then them IT was always going to be more scary no matter how much they had grown up.

They had to go back as their eleven year old self's to face IT.

_Why… Mar-tee why do you have to go back at all… what do you owe any of them. A promise… a promise you made when you were eleven. Children make silly promises to each other all the time. The promise you made to your mother means a lot more then the one you made to a group of eleven year old thugs. _

Marty pushed his screeching mother's voice away. He promised his mother he would take care of himself because he was always such a sickly boy… so weak, his mother knew best when he scrapped his knee it was her quick thinking to rush him to A&E for a booster shot wasn't it his mother who always made sure he was wrapped up tightly to stop the nasty germs from getting in and make him even more sicker.

_Listen to mother now Marty… you don't want to be sick all the way from your safe and clean home do you. Do you want to get dirty and sick by going back to Derris where your mother knew you would always get sick. _

_The thugs were going to get you hurt Marty… they were going to leave you here to float… they want you to float Mar-tee. _

Marty pushed away from the mirror and from the voice of his mother… she was dead, gone from his life. But she had left her ghost to haunt him every time his head began to ache he would take Teylon always that nagging voice questioning if it was a tumour.

Or every time he coughed had he caught TB from the streets or every time his nose ran he was sure it was some type of new viral infection.

Oh did she haunt, she would be there telling to button up to swallow this pill and tell him to suck deep on his pump. She was always going to haunt him.

But she hadn't haunted him back in that summer of 1979, he had a feeling of freedom he would never feel again. It wasn't because of IT no it was because of the outsider club, and though the fear was already clamping his airways and making his asthma flare up he knew nothing would stop him from going back to feel even for a few hours free, from his mother, from his weakness and especially from the boy he had been and the man he had become.

_You can't be free all the time… no you have to be mother's special delicate little man soon but if you want to come here, down here where you'll get sick and dirty you can be free. Mother will float too far away from you. _

The half wheeze filled the office all the while Marty fumbled to find his inhaler, the satisfying release of medication hit his throat and opened his airway enough for the wheezes to break up.

He was going back to Derris and his mother's voice screaming in his head only gave him a head ache, he would swallow two pills soon enough hoping it wasn't some sort of brain tumour.

_Your not free Mar-tee… never free, we've always held on to you… just like those balloons. Come back Mar-tee if your brave enough… are you brave enough to stand against mother. You wasn't then… she's down here waiting for you Mar-tee, just waiting to make sure those thugs wouldn't get you hurt. _

"God no" Marty lurched towards the office door and fresh air… he needed air away from the stuffy office from his mother's voice.

Derris held it's own ghost but at least he wouldn't be alone when he faced them… he would have the outsider club.

Tony leading them… no not leading them but giving them reason… Teddy being steady and reasonable… Kimmy offering support and love that was easy for eleven years old… Stevie keeping things light and less scary…Kenny putting their ideas into action... Gill noting keeping everything in check.

_You won't be alone for too long Mar-tee… never alone because their all here, your mother, Sasha, Vinny… their all waiting so you won't be alone. _

_Do you want a balloon Mar-tee…_

* * *

Just one more of the outsiders club to come along before more Tony and the NCIS guys turning up... thanks for the reviews.


	7. Stumpy Kenny

Chapter six

Summer 2009 outside New England

Not far from where Kimberly Sutton nee Lance was fleeing her haunted home a man with a slender but heavy built body stumbled into a bar.

Outside was a bar where if you needed a drink you could find one no questions asked. Luke Stokes wasn't out to prove anything to the government nor the law he was just out to make sure the travellers of those long and dark roads had a place to put their head down for the night. Most nights the place they laid their head was on his polished wooden tables and bar.

Luke paid little attention to most of his customers something that suited him and them just fine, the truth was about two miles along you could find one of those highly clean and spotless motels that offered the softest beds this side of Washington or some other place that stated they had the softest beds.

It didn't matter though Luke still had enough customers in most nights to make sure he stayed afloat. Not enough to lead a glamorise life but enough to make sure his wife and two baby boys had a roof over their heads and food in their bellies.

There was however one customer whom Luke had paid close attention too… the very same customer who was stumbling through the doors as though he was being chased by a pack of wolves.

_No not wolves but ghosts… and by the look of him they weren't no caspers. _

"Hey Mr. Holden, you ok you looks like you've seen a ghost" Luke tried to sound his usual light hearted self but something about his favourite customer didn't sit well with him. Like he almost wasn't there.

"Heya Luke… ghost huh… guess you call it that" Kenny Holden admitted as he eased him self on to a stool that had seen better days.

"Can you call 'em ghosts if you can't see them… what if you heard a ghost… of the past you thought you laid to rest" Kenny questioned never meeting Luke's eyes which for some unknown reason made him feel better.

He was sure if he did meet Kenny's eyes then he would see a dead man's eyes and not that of a man who had gone on to invent some nifty things and help hold up some important buildings.

"Don't quiet get ya Mr. Holden… something happen, maybe to your folks or maybe an old girlfriend or wife" Luke asked as Kenny chuckled not out of humour but not out of bitterness either.

_He's tired… like his been busy all day and just don't have the right amount of steam to carry on. _

"Don't worry Luke… it doesn't matter any way… not now anyways, I made a promise and I guess now I have to keep it. Ain't that the way life crumbles… promises you remember never get fulfilled and those you forget- have to forget- always having a way of coming back to bite you" Kenny stated laughing once more and for the first time since entering lifted his dark eyes and Luke tired hard not to recoil from the face he was looking at.

It wasn't that of a man who on any night could probably drink half-probably all- of the men in the bar. It was of a man who was facing death and not just the every day threat but rather some closer threat of death… a death row man.

"you need a drink Mr. Holden" Luke questioned reaching past Kenny's usual beer right for the hard stuff. But Kenny held a hand up and lowered his head enough for Luke to lose sight of that horrid and haunted face.

"not tonight… probably not for a good few nights, just needed a pit stop I guess" Kenny admitted before lowering his hand to the bar surface and holding his palm up right he studied his palm like a fortune teller. It was then that Luke noticed the thin scar running across his palm.

It was faint that was for sure but it was there and it looked like it was becoming unfaded as the seconds ticked by.

"Kids promises don't mean diddle squat… at least they shouldn't to a grown man… but you can bet your dollar butt this promise means something" Kenny laughed again causing Luke to frown at him.

"We use to say that all the time you know… bet your dollar butt, the adults didn't understand that's what made it funny to say" Kenny admitted his face lighting enough for Luke to see a glimmer of the child Kenny had once been.

"kinder like bet your bottom dollar" Luke questioned startled when Kenny snapped his head up and smiled tightly at him. Luke understood then that it wasn't a death face he was looking at but rather a fake one. It wasn't Kenny Holden the man looking at him but a kid who was trying to look older but never able to pull it off.

"Exactly… Stevie said it first… I think… yeah he must of, he was always saying things that stuck from then on we just said it all the time" Kenny rambled his head bopping along as though he was agreeing with himself.

"An old friend of yours" Luke asked watching with confusion as Kenny furrowed his brow in deep thought.

"I think so… yeah he must have been… he would be old now, older at least… I can't remember it all but the scary thing is I will though… I will remember it all clear as day. Bet your dollar butt on that" Kenny stated before looking around the bar a little startled to find himself there.

"I think that's what scaring me the most… remembering, it isn't what I'm remembering I could never be scared by that but by the act of remember it self. When you grow up it's always scary learning new things… but it's a lot worst when you remember things you already knew but kept buried" Kenny was mostly talking to himself, Luke had a feeling he had to talk out loud or he would go mad if he didn't.

"I remember there was seven of us back then… but there won't be seven of us now… I'm not remembering there wouldn't be seven of us but rather remembering the feeling of knowing" Kenny carried on focusing his attention on the old picture Luke's father had taken when he was only a young boy.

"If your in some kinder of trouble Mr. Holden I'm sure I could help" Luke offered holding back the gasp when Kenny snapped his head around and gave him a sharp look. It wasn't accusation or bitter but rather shock and sadness at the fact that Luke would offer help without even knowing what he was helping with.

"I wish you could help Luke… I wished anyone could help, the police, the army hell even now the government would be like berries on a Sunday… but this trouble… my trouble well it's not for you, it was just for the seven of us… six of us now" Kenny told him before a sobering thought pierced his mind. Stuffing his hands into his pocket Kenny pulled out a black velvet jewellers sack and laid it carefully on the bar surface and just as carefully pulled the strings loose and opened the sack. Inside laid five stamps… not the modern over the counter stamps but some as early as 1887.

"My pops couldn't give them to me himself… he died in San Francisco, fell from the bridge it self during it's rainy season. He started this with his pops when he was seven, there's only a few of these left in the world, this one here is 1906 San Francisco right before the quake hit" Kenny pointed one out as Luke studied them.

"Worth a pretty penny together… never had a need to sell them, probably never will… and I don't have any need for where I'm going now so you take them and give them to your boys… you start something with them" Kenny ordered taking one last lingering look at the stamps before closing the sack and pushing it towards Luke.

Standing shocked for a moment Luke quickly recovered and shook his head, his finger tips pushing against the velvet.

"I couldn't" "But you will… Luke you listen to me I really don't have any need for them- money wise or sentimental wise- I haven't had any real need for them. But you do, keep 'em, sell 'em or just post a long and nice letter to your pops with 'em I really don't care but just take them. Pick them up and put in your safe and then think on 'em" Kenny ordered already standing up from the stool.

Luke wasn't sure if it was the dead look he had seen earlier or the new determination he heard in Kenny's voice but he knew he would place those stamps in his safe and when he got home he would tell his wife all about how Mr. Holden had given them to him.

In years to come Ian and Matthew Stokes would be thankful for those stamps and Mr Holden when they graduate top of their classes at Oxford Cambridge. But for now they will think their just cool little pieces of paper that their pops brought home for them to keep.

"Goodbye Luke" Kenny said before he turned and headed back to the exit, leaving Luke to stare after him.

"Mr. Holden" Luke trailed off unaware of what he could say to make Kenny stay or why he wanted to make him stay.

Kenny gave him a crocked smile similar to the one he had smiled the first time he met his friends back in 1979.

"Did you know I was fat kid Luke… I don't mean a chubby, soft little kid but I mean porky pig sort of fat… the kinder of kid you always thought would die there on the spot from a heart attack" Kenny questioned as Luke shook his head his mouth some how stapled shut.

"Yeah I was fat all right… they called me names… hurtful names, but Stevie, he was the only one who called me stumpy on account of my thick and fat legs… it didn't hurt" Kenny admitted as Luke smiled a little at this. Unable to believe the man standing before the exit to the outside world was ever fat.

"I guess people change" Luke offered as Kenny chuckled that humourless bitterless but tired laugh again.

"Yeah they do… but IT… well IT doesn't, I guess that's why we faced IT back then, IT couldn't change not much, always the same range of faces. I guess we got shocked the first time but after that it just wore off" Kenny stated before he half waved as he pushed himself out of the bar and into the night.

Luke wanted to call out again… to offer good luck and good bye but knew it was too late.

Kenneth Holden was already gone… long before he sat at the bar, long before he had that notion to make a pit stop.

What scared Luke wasn't where Kenny had gone but rather when he went… what time that trouble man was now heading too.


	8. Promising

Chapter seven

_Summer 1979 Derris, Maine _

_The drizzle was coming… to wash away the pain, the fear and most of all the blood. _

"_Promise me" an eleven year old ordered with a tone of a man he would yet to become. He turned his dark eyes to the six others, taking in their dirty faces one by one. They had faced hell this day… they had faced IT. _

"_please promise me if IT comes back we'll come back all of us… and we'll finish IT" Anthony 'Tony' DiNozzo ordered never looking away never backing away. _

_The oath he was demanded of each of them was much bigger then any eleven year should ever make… but it was an oath none of them could ever walk away from. _

_because they had faced IT… they had gone into the sewers and hurt IT. _

_A tall, lanky and far sighted African American boy stepped forward first, his neck still sporting the scars from his battle. They would fade in time and in his memory until they all had to remember. _

"_I puh-puh-puh-promise" Gilbert 'Gill' Jefferson promised reaching for Tony's hand, in years to come his hand would dwarf Tony's hand by one whole glove size but right there and then they were all equal, no one bigger nor smaller then the person they stood beside. _

"_Me too… hell you guys know how to party" Stephen 'Stevie' Thompson declared in his indifferent accents… none had the heart to tell him they all sounded the same. He too placed his dirty hand on Tony's and Gill's. _

_The meek but beautiful girl among the group stepped forward standing close to Tony, her muddy and twisted raven black hair trailing down her back. The thing she used to hide her bruises and tears away from the world would make her famous in the years when she became a woman. _

"_I promise" Kimberly 'Kimmy' Lance promised placing her delicate hand on top of their hands. _

_A boy at least a foot smaller then all the boys and the girl stepped forward taking a deep breath from his pump that he carried like a life line before placing his hand in the half formed circle and looked directly at Tony. _

"_I promise" Martin 'Marty' Nicolas promised too with a wheeze that hitched his breath but never threatened him enough to take another deep breath from his pump. _

_The tall an always neat and tidy boy hesitated for a moment, his dark blue eyes glazing over for a moment never daring to look back to where they had all fled. _

_But even he placed his hand in the circle but refused to meet Tony's eyes, most would tell you this was a look of a grown man who knew he couldn't keep his promises but still promised any way seeing no harm in an eleven years old promise. _

"_I promise" Theodore 'Teddy' Kovak promised in a shaky breath that didn't suit the boy who had become known as steady Teddy… a man who would grow up to become even more neat and tidy then he already was. _

_The fat- porky pig kinder fat- kid stepped forward last with a graceful ease not connected with any one of his size. Though he placed his big and fat hand in the circle years from now that hand would be smaller and more roughened by time and work. _

"_I promise" Kenneth 'Kenny' Holden promised with determination that years later a man named Luke Stokes would see. _

_Tony looked from each with a stern gaze, taking in the looks of six eleven year olds catching a glimmer of the adults they would become- the very same adults he would meet twenty eight years later- and he nodded. _

_The oath was half sealed… something more was needed but none of them were old enough to understand what else was needed. Teddy was the first to with draw his hand and a dread filled the other six, a dread that no eleven year old had the emotional range to name or even understand. _

_Years later they would be able to understand that the dread was the knowing that the circle had been broken long before they had forgotten and been retold. But for now they simple accepted the dread as part and parcel of what they had faced. _

"_For Dickie Terence" Kimmy stated… because she had put a band aid on the three years old knee two days before IT had killed him. _

"_For pops" Gill stated… because he wouldn't know now but in years to come when his father laid dying his scarred lungs helping his cancer he would know that the fire that caused his fathers scarred lungs had been something to do with IT. _

"_For anyone that big ape Tommy ever started on" Stevie stated… because Tommy had been born and raised in Derris. And Derris was apart of IT. _

"_For- for the swans" Teddy added in a shaky voice while his hand found it's way back to the circle… because his father had always told him about the swans that had lived on Blue lake nearly thirty years ago but was found slaughtered. _

"_For mother" Marty stated clutching his pump tighter hoping that if his mother was watching right there and then she would see he still had it… because something in Derris, something about Derris made his mother worry even more then she ever had too, because she couldn't put a name to that irrational fear but still embraced it. _

"_For us" Kenny stated his voice barely above a whisper but still sounding like he had bellowed it across the marsh land surrounding the standpipes… because even though they stood there alive something had been lost that day and IT had stolen it. _

_Tony flickered his eyes from each person and saw that they too were watching him. _

"_For Sasha" Tony stated clearly and firmly… because Sasha had only been six years old, she had been bored and because she had loved Tony and he had loved her. _

_BEEEEEEPP_

the annoying tooting sound snapped Tony from his thoughts and caused him to glare as the small ford tore past him and became a dwindling set of tail lights against the dusk.

Tony heaved a sigh and saw the road had changed a lot since he left the city, which to him was just a few seconds ago but daring a look to the dash board he had to squint and tilt his head to make sure it didn't say it had been forty minutes since he left Bangor airport.

Looking back to the road he almost laughed out loud at the thought that it would have taken half that time if Ziva had been driving.

A sharp twist of pain came when he thought about Ziva… his last words to her, her face as he walked out of his apartment door.

He didn't know why she had come after him… Gibbs he could believe, Abby almost half expected… McGee a little out there but he might have come but Ziva.

He didn't slow in his packing as she stood watching him… for the first time she didn't say anything smart or sassy to him instead watched with those big round eyes of hers trying to understand what would force a grown man to flee his work, his friends, to travel back to some back water town none of them had ever heard of.

"I promised… I made them promise and some promises you can't break no matter how hard you try" Tony declared out loud in the empty car.

"_why" _Tony half expected to look to the passenger seat and see Ziva still staring at him, but instead he caught sight of the sign reading Derris straight ahead.

Another twist of pain came and Ziva was driven from his mind and another dark haired, big eyed girl took over his thoughts. Not a woman but a girl, aged six years old missing her two front teeth and sporting two bucks that the tooth fairy had left her.

Tony turned sharply and pulled over to the hard shoulder, the traffic had lessen a good deal since he left the city so even if some one did honk at him he didn't hear it. The tears were already streaming down his face as he climbed from the car and heaved into the dirt.

"Sasha" Tony muttered between heaves, bracing his hands on his bent knees trying hard to swallow down the dry hot air. How could he forget that face, that girl, that laughter, that smile, that wavy brown hair… that death.

Tony finished his heaving and sat heavily against the car stealing hitches in his breathing.

He had forgot because she had been apart of Derris and he had forgotten Derris, but his parents hadn't… three years after they had left Derris, Tony had been coming home when a girl aged six fell from her bike and Tony helped her up.

_Sasha had a nasty bruise when she fell from her bike his mother had screamed blue murder when Tony pushed the small bike back home. _

His parents were quiet when he told them what the girl looked like, a half memory surfacing in his mind but never solid enough to grab. That haunted look crossed their faces like the memory was solid enough for them and it was hitting them just hard enough.

Tony heard only one name later that night long after his parents went to bed and thought Tony couldn't hear them.

"_She sounds just like Sasha" his mother had all but wailed but then he heard the heavy thump of his father getting up and pacing. _

"_Sasha died… Tony forgot about her… he doesn't remember" his fathers stern voice was enough to put a stop to his mother's cries and Tony's need to find out who Sasha was. _

But now he knew… he remembered, and as he climbed into his car he pushed it to the limit and only vaguely noted his driving was kin to Ziva's.

It didn't matter though because Derris was there so close that you could smell the standpipes and the Blue lake that once upon a time could still be swum in before the sewer had backed up and flooded the whole lake.

IT was waiting and it held a special smell a mixture of fear, hunger and death all rolled into one that was special to Derris and Derris alone.

It was the same smell Tony had smelt the day Sasha was buried… it was the smell that would drive Tony crazy enough to promise to come back and fulfil that promise.


	9. A damn good brother

Chapter eight

_Summer 1979 Derris, Maine _

_Tony was sitting in bed, propped up by pillows… still fighting off the effects of that devastating cold he had caught when he took an untimely trip into the lake under the bridge. _

_It was clean enough water but in a few more years the sewer would leak into it enough to make passing that bridge a chore to hold your nose and whatever else you held in your hands. _

_Tony had missed the last two days of school but was lucky enough to sit all of his exams, Stevie and Gill had dropped off his grades for him right after getting out of school yesterday but had stopped only ten minutes before Mrs. DiNozzo kicked them out stating they didn't want to get sick too. _

_He hated being sick but it would be over soon enough because he was told once before by his grandmother in her broken English and better Italian that it took a total of nine days to have a cold. Three days to get it, three days to have it and three days to get rid of it. Well Tony was on his eighth day. _

"_Tony" the small delicate voice called from his bedroom door and Tony looked over to see a mop of wavy brown hair and a gapped tooth smile. Sasha DiNozzo was adopted… his parents had explained that to him when he was eight years old, even though her real parents had loved her they just couldn't look after her like Tony's mom and pops could. _

_She had been only three years old when Tony peered at her for the first time and promised his father that he would look after her just like any good brother would. Of course being a good brother didn't mean you were nice to them all the time… no Tony hadn't always been nice to Sasha but he did love her and he would die before he would let anything happen to her. _

"_What is it snot nose" Tony's voice was full of blocked nose and heavy chests, he was sick and Sasha had told him she didn't like it when he was sick because he was Tony… he wasn't meant to get sick. _

"_I broke it… I didn't mean to, but she broke and mommy don't know how to fix her" Sasha sobbed as Tony rolled his eyes and waved her into his room. _

"_I'm gonna throw that in the bin" Tony joked before Sasha reeled back and held a plastic leg and the plastic body of a cheap fair ground doll close to her ready to fight her older brother. _

_Tony would never hurt her, every time they fought Tony would make sure he landed on his back and Sasha was holding down his legs with a her small body claiming she had won again. _

_He was a good brother damnit and that's what good brothers did. _

"_I tell daddy" Sasha warned as Tony laughed then began to cough reaching for his tissues, he hated being sick just as much as Sasha hated seeing him sick. _

"_Give it to me and I'll fix the stupid thing" Tony ordered holding his hot hand out for the doll that Sasha gave to him without question. She knew he would never throw her doll away… just like she would never part with it despite the fact that it had lost all of it's hair, was scratched and was missing an eye because Tony had given her the doll… he had won it for her when the fair had come to the town. _

"_One day I'm gonna teach you how to fix the damn thing yourself" Tony grumbled quickly going to work grabbing the glue that came with his model cars from his side table and then the leg applying a decent amount to hold the leg in place for the next month or so… or at least until Sasha decided to give the thing a bath. _

"_I'm not old enough… mommy says so" Sasha told him standing on tippy toes to watch as Tony moved quickly fixing her doll. _

"_aren't you bored here… why don't you go outside leave the damn doll and just have fun like normal kids" Tony asked as Sasha shook her head sending her wavy hair flying against her face. _

_She was a kid and a kid didn't understand that you could leave things like dolls behind and not cry about them. _

"_I want my dolly" Sasha told him with a hitch as tears threatened to fall from her eyes at this thought. Tony gave her a firm look, he hated to see her cry just as much as she hated to see him sick. _

"_Don't start bawling, or I will throw this damn doll away" Tony ordered with a half threat… he could never mean anything hurtful or mean to Sasha it was just his way. _

_He was a good brother. _

_Sasha cleared her eyes and the tears that threatened to fall were held at bay and she watched him in silence. _

"_There fixed you happy now" Tony demanded carefully handing the doll back to her, making sure she grabbed the head and not the sticky leg. Sasha nodded sending her wavy hair bouncing again. _

"_I'm going to take her out for fresh air away from the germs… mommy said there are germs in the air because you fell in the lake" Sasha stated as Tony grinned and lent forward._

"_Sure you don't want my germs there fun" Sasha squealed with laughter and dove backwards holding her hand up to ward of Tony and his germs. _

"_NOOOO" she squealed holding the doll to her but still grinning as Tony lent back. _

"_I'm going to get my pushchair and we're going for a walk away from the nasty germs and boy cooties" Sasha informed him as Tony shrugged and grinned at her. _

_Not knowing that it would be the very same pushchair found a block away on it's side caught up by a gnarled tree root… right next to the drain where they would find the body of Sasha DiNozzo and the body of her cheap plastic doll missing the leg Tony had fixed that morning. _

"_Tony" Sasha said again as Tony looked at her half expecting her to ask a stupid question like she always did… at least stupid to Tony's eleven year old mind but important to a six year old. _

"_What snot nose" Tony demanded and before he knew it there was a flurry of dark hair and bright red jumpsuit. Sasha pressed a kiss to his slightly feverish forehead and then giggled when she pulled back. _

"_thanks for fixing my dolly… I love you" Sasha stated with an eerie look someone gets when they know their going to die. Tony shuddered thinking it was the fever working it's way through him. _

"_It's nothing" Tony assured knowing it meant everything to her and if he had known that Sasha cried in those last few moments of her too short life because she was scared Tony would hate her for breaking the doll again it would have broke his heart and driven him insane. _

"_Be careful snot nose… remember don't talk to strangers and if the big kids start just grab your doll and run home" Tony ordered as Sasha tilted her head and scrunched her nose up as though trying to tell him she wasn't stupid. _

_Just like that the eerie look was gone and standing there was his six year old sister, hair laying in waves and her two front teeth missing but two bucks sitting tightly in her piggy bank. _

"_what about my pushchair" she questioned hating the idea of having to leave it behind just as much as though leaving her dolly behind. _

_And Tony before he could understand or even think gave her the grown up answer. _

"_I'll buy you a new one" Tony assured as Sasha shook her head and grinned at him again before racing from his room directly across to her room where she prepared for her time outside. _

_Tony half guessed the feeling of dread and guilt at not being a better brother was just because his fever had been high and he hadn't eaten anything right since last week. But in years to come when he remembered Derris fully he knew even back then he knew it was starting… everything that happened that day, Tony's cold, Sasha's doll, his words and her kiss was all leading up to IT. _

_But for just then Tony was comfortable sitting in his warm bed trying to breath through his blocked nose and chesty cough. By the time Sasha left the house Tony was already half asleep, barely aware that Sasha was gone-for good- just knowing he was dreaming about that strange turtle again. _


	10. Special Agents

Chapter nine

Summer 2009 Washington Navy Yard, Washington DC

To say Leroy Jethro Gibbs was in a bad mood would be a mistake for any one to say- he wasn't just in a bad mood he was seething- and both McGee and Ziva doubted even Abby could put a smile on the agents face.

His mood started to sink when Tony first stated he had to go… it got steadily worse when Tony walked away from him and got his leave from Jenny. Then Ziva took off after Tony and came back with out him. Gibbs was sure that if anyone could force the younger man to stay it would be Ziva, but no she had come back empty handed which didn't help Gibbs mood at least.

Then Jenny had walked into the bull pit and asked for updates on their latest case not even once mentioning where Tony had vanished too or if he was even coming back. Gibbs had to restrain himself from slapping Jenny round the back of the head.

By mid afternoon as the silence became almost solid enough to touch Gibbs was in the worse mood he could remember since Kate died.

"Ziva" Gibbs barked causing the younger woman to lift her dark eyes up from her computer and stare straight into Gibbs eyes. Something many people would shy away from.

"Pull DiNozzo's record everything, including his childhood" Gibbs ordered already moving over to McGee's desk.

"You mean Derris" Ziva questioned causing Gibbs to give her a look before turning back to McGee.

"I mean everything" he ordered as Ziva debated for a moment but still did what he said none the less. Whatever Tony had said to Ziva before he disappeared had some how unnerved the young woman-enough for her to question orders- and Gibbs didn't like that anymore then he liked Tony rushing off to fulfil some promise he made as a kid.

"McGee I want you to find me everything about Derris… then your booking me a flight down there" Gibbs ordered as McGee studied him for a moment but went to work quickly flickering his eyes to Ziva for a moment then back to his computer.

"What are we hoping to find boss" McGee asked as Gibbs stopped in his stride back to his desk and for the first time in his life he didn't have the answer straight away. Hell he didn't know why this place was giving him a bad feeling nor why he didn't think Tony heading back there alone was such a bad idea.

"Because one of my agents is missing and I want to know why Derris is a place he has to go to" Gibbs snapped carrying on with his stride trying to rid himself of the bad feeling growing in him.

Derris and whatever it held was Tony's fight not his but he would never leave an agent behind.

_Like Kate… she was his reasonability but she still died. _

Gibbs shook his head and started his own search into Derris, trying to find what hidden fact was pulling Tony back there.

"Whoa boss… I've got something on Derris, over the past three weeks there has been some strange disappearances and even stranger deaths" McGee called causing Ziva to glance up at the same time as Gibbs.

Tony was heading into that… they didn't know what part he would play but he would have a part to play in it all.

"There's been nine kids who have been murdered- slaughtered- one blogger said, three more kids have just vanished the police are calling them run aways. Seems this isn't the first time it's happened, back in 1979 too and before that as well" McGee told them before Ziva half jumped from her chair.

"1979.… yes Tony lived in Derris in 1979, he was eleven years old" Ziva declared as Gibbs looked to her as she scanned her computer though Gibbs was sure she didn't need to re read anything.

"Mr and Mrs DiNozzo moved to Derris in 1975 and…" Ziva trailed off before jumping from her chair and sprinting around to McGee who didn't have time to protest when she all but shoved him from his computer.

"Yes… here… this" she ordered as McGee frowned but read the page none the less before his eyebrows shot up and his eyes widen.

"McGee" Gibbs demanded as McGee looked at him and swallowed.

"the summer of 1979 a six year old girl was found murdered a block from her home… her arm had been ripped from it's socket, she died from blood loss" McGee relayed as Gibbs stood and gave him a threatening look.

"Her name was Sasha DiNozzo, she was adopted by Mr and Mrs DiNozzo in 1975" McGee hurried to tell him as Gibbs stood still behind his desk not looking at either of them.

"Why did Tony not tell us he had a sister" Ziva questioned looking from McGee too Gibbs then back again.

"Maybe he doesn't like to talk about it… she was murdered after all or maybe he was too young to remember" McGee offered before Gibbs looked at them sharply.

"He didn't remember… just like he didn't remember about Derris until he got that phone call" Gibbs told them as Ziva frowned assuming it was just another American term she wasn't used to yet.

"But that's silly boss… how could he forget a whole part of his childhood" McGee questioned as Gibbs slowly worked it through his mind.

"I don't know… I don't know what is going on but I'm going to find out, book me a flight to Derris" Gibbs ordered pulling his gun from his draw.

"No flights to Derris directly… there's a stop over at Bangor" McGee informed him as Gibbs nodded but said nothing more.

McGee only watched half aware as Ziva hurried to her own desk… he was already booking the flight to Bangor then the rental car. He didn't like the way Tony had taken off but he hated the fact that Gibbs didn't know what was going on nor what he was getting himself into.

He hated it so much that when asked how many seats he needed he typed in three instead of one. Gibbs would understand, both he and Tony were going to need all the help they could get and for the moment it would have to be him and Ziva.

* * *

Kim asked if this was just going to be a Tony fic well here is the proof that the rest of the NCIS team are coming to help Tony. Hope you like it and I hope they weren't too out of character.


	11. Back at the bridge

Chapter ten

Summer 2009 Derris Maine

The bridge still stood where he last left it… as did the smell, thankfully Tony had been around enough dead bodies to know how to hold breathing through his nose and take shallow breaths through his mouth.

But it didn't stop the old memories resurfacing and chocking him. Sasha was still lingering in his thoughts, more then lingering it was like she was stomping all over his mind bringing back everything she did from the age of three to six years old.

The tears had tampered off but the heartache still throbbed from the lose and pain he had felt all those years ago.

Tony remembered the day Sasha's broken body had been brought back to the house, he had been dozing when his mothers screams woke him. He stumbled down the stairs only to have a heavy hand halt him before he could race to see what had turned his mother into a screaming wreck.

To Tony's small form police chief Clancy Myers was a bear of a man towering over him, his usual happy and relaxed face was pinched and grey. Tony didn't understand then but Myers had spared Tony from a sight that would have no doubt sent him insane.

Later when his mother had been sedated and his father travelled too and from the hospital then the police station Tony had watched his father drink and drink and drink until he passed out leaving Tony the only one who remained awake that night and early morning.

It was also that night he was sure he could hear Sasha's cries from the bathroom until he slammed the door shut and buried himself under the covers.

Tony straightened away from the bridge clenching his jaw against the raw emotions. Because he had forgotten, because he had to forget he was sure his father and mother always just treated him the way they did because it was how boys were meant to be raised.

He didn't blame Sasha for that nor did he blame Derris and he couldn't even really blame that strange turtle that had guided them all.

No Tony hated and blamed IT… because IT stole Sasha from them and Tony wanted to make IT pay.

"_Tony" _a voice called causing Tony to glance around him, in the dusk light he was alone on the bridge. The few cars that did drive past not even bothering to glance at the lone figure standing on the bridge, it was Derris after all and the adults learnt a long time ago to ignore things they didn't understand or even want to know.

"_Tony it's dark down here" _the voice called again as Tony turned slowly to look over the bridge his hand going to the butt of his gun knowing it was a reflex Gibbs had embedded in him.

There half way along the straightest part of the lake that you could have swum in years ago stood a lone figure. What was most disturbing about this figure wasn't the fact that it was standing on top of the water it was the fact that it had bushy orange hair, a sliver clown suit and floppy red shoes.

Tony couldn't help but let his eyes travel from each orange puffy oversized buttons to see the painted white face with an over sized painted red smile. Tony couldn't remember how to breath or when his grip on the bridge railing became so tight that his knuckles popped and groaned to give way.

"No" he muttered as IT walked calmly towards him with his smile growing in an unnatural way.

"_Oh Tony boy you came back… now the fun can really begin… Sasha's here, all she wanted was a balloon. They float down here Tony, do you want to float" _IT's voice carried clearly across the distances so clear enough that Tony felt the sweat rolling down his back.

Tony shook his head feeling the fear build up in his legs that he was sure he couldn't run even if he wanted to when that clowns gloved hands reached up and grabbed his foot.

"_Don't say I didn't warn you Tony Boy… you came back but your never leaving again none of you are… pick a spot Tony, quickly now places are filling up… why I've gave one spot up today already" _IT mocked as Tony pleaded and willed his fingers to pry loose of the railing and for his legs to move.

IT had covered half the distance in what seemed like no time… Tony was sure he didn't blink not once.

Tony could see the single balloon IT was carrying… in big letters Tony could read _'You'll never leave' _and in those words Tony found his magical reprieve.

"Sasha was six years old you son of a bitch… she was four when she first laughed… she was four when I won her that dolly… she was five when she scraped her knee… she was five when she crept into my room because of the lighting storm and she had just turned four when she called me her hero" Tony was sure he sounded and looked like a mad man hanging over the railing screaming till his face turned red.

But to him it didn't matter all that mattered was the fact that IT was no longer moving forward instead it was flinching back, it's red painted smile never falling but it's mouth was already moving back to snarl at Tony.

"She had a red jumpsuit that my father brought her when she was five… she made me braid her hair once when she was four… she asked me to help her clean up the bottle of nail vanish from moms vanity… she kissed me on the forehead when I bought a new bottle" Tony screamed and screamed until IT vanished with a pop. IT didn't fade and slink away IT just vanished with a pop and it took a few moments for Tony to steady his breath before bolting from the railing straight in to his car and speed away before his door was shut and locked.

He didn't dare to look over his shoulder or in the mirror until the bridge was just a speck but when Tony did dare look back he could see a small speck of orange floating above the bridge… a balloon, it was a balloon and with a pop Tony thought he could hear it was gone.

Tony didn't think about IT nor the bridge even as he arrived at the library nor when he parked the car and hurried to the heavy doors leading the main hall of the library. All he was thinking was about the three years he had spent as the best damn brother he could ever think to be.


	12. Kimmy sees ghosts

Chapter eleven

Summer 2009 Derris, Maine

Over an hour before Tony arrived at the bridge then fled from it two other people were having waking nightmares of their own. Kim was the first to encounter IT on arriving back to Derris. She didn't bother renting a car after arriving in Bangor instead she took a cab far enough before she hitched a ride with an elderly couple returning from a craft fair.

She past by the bridge and was dropped off at the corner of Western broad and Treat street, she hadn't known when she asked to be dropped of their that she had any intention to turn right on Western broad and walk along the cracked pavements, strolling past the houses that had been run down even when she was eleven year old.

It hit her why she had came here when she stopped across the street from a run down converted Victorian house. It's windows had been boarded over in places while others simply left the cracked glass in it's place.

A cold dread worked it's way up Kim's back as she stared at the window on the first floor where she had spent many days looking out while her father and mother were at work. It was the same window she had looked out of when her mother told her the special way a man and woman- only a man and woman- should touch each other before her eyes flickered to the shed sitting on the corner of the small plot that surround the house.

Kim couldn't tear her eyes anymore then she could have stopped her self from walking down the street.

She clutched her bag tightly in her hand knowing she should run-as fast as she could- from the house where she had spent most of her childhood. But something was holding her there keeping her prisoner there.

"_It hurts" _a lone voice came from the drain that stood before the house, even back then the cover was cracked and sinking back into the darkness.

Kimmy looked to the drain and shook her head trying hard to pull legs back and start pumping them. But they wouldn't move.

"_Do you have a band aid Kimmy… it hurts real bad" _the voice had started out as Dickie Terence but soon it twisted and echoed into something more disturbing.

"_Told you I would be seeing you soon darling… I didn't have to worry" _Kim didn't know what it was- it wasn't Ollie's voice- but something about the idea of him squeezing through that small drain cover to hide in the darkness caused her to giggle. Before long she was howling at the thought of him pushing his sagging belly through the hole, his thick fingers clawing and scratching to get a hold to pull himself through.

Kimmy didn't even stop laughing when she heard her father yelling at her nor when her mother questioning if she knew that only men and women could touch each other in a special way.

She did start running stilling hitching her breath to laugh and breath when she heard the growl of pain, it wasn't Ollie or her father or her mother or Dickie. It was IT.

Kimmy didn't know why she was heading back along Western Broad all the way up town to the centre to the library all she knew was that she had to go there because it was a safe place.

She didn't stop running until the last remnants of IT's growl faded away from her hearing. She would later wished she just turned the other way and ran as fast as she could back out of town.


	13. Kenny will rock you

Chapter twelve

Summer 2009 Derris, Maine

Around the same time Kenny Holden was just pulling his car to a stop along side the only set of train tracks in Derris.

They had long been out of use even back when Kenny was eleven years old, it had been during the 1930's when the boom from imports and exports had been at their highest in Derris. But by 1934 something happened to turn thing rotten and the import and export business went down the drains.

Kenny had no real reason to claim for being at the tracks apart from the reason that sometime during that summer he had found happiness that had been denied to him for most of his childhood due to his size. At these tracks the Outsiders club made him feel like he belonged, like he wasn't the fat kid who would hid himself beneath baggy jumpers even during the summer.

Standing in the wasteland of the tracks as a full grown man Kenny couldn't help but smile, his smile held no humour just a touch of bitterness and nostalgia at the memories of how he fought hard to lose that weight. He fought his gym teacher, he fought himself but most of all he fought his mother.

She had cried for hours on end that he was starving himself, he was going to die and leave her just like his pops did back in San Francisco only this time she would have no one once he was gone.

Kenny shook his head to free himself of his mother… he hadn't thought of her since she died nine years ago. She cried when she was dying too… crying that Kenny didn't see her no more… that he wouldn't know what to do with himself once she was gone.

Truth was a small part of him-the part he would later recognize it as Derris- always knew he would feel truly free when his mother died.

Back in 1979 his mother controlled him by using his weight, he knew that she wasn't trying to be hurtful she was just lonely. She fed him up to the point where the doctors tried to inform her of the harm she was doing… soon he stopped visiting doctors only when he had to.

When he fought back for his control over his weight his mother soon prayed on his old fears… of never finding friends and never fitting it. As a fat boy he blamed his weight for not being accepted in society but when he lost the weight he still found it hard to fit in and his controlled his fear of never being that right kind of boy. One who knew too much, didn't look right to fight in with the boys.

Back then he had forgotten he had friends… six of them that would have died for him and who he would die for. But he forgot and soon fell into that pattern with his mother again, the words that he had friends just dying on the tip of tongue.

"I had friends… I have friends" Kenny the man muttered to the growing darkness, glaring over the rusting train tracks and knee high patches of weeds.

"_Oh my poor boy… you were too fat to make friends… they didn't like you Kenny… the could out run you Kenny" _his mothers voice weaved it's way through the weeds. Kenny felt his feet root themselves and his bowls twist and turn.

"_I'm so lonely down here Kenny… I have no one… what will you do… you didn't know what to do with out me Kenny" _his mothers voice was moving closer, the weeds were being moved by some unseen force.

Jenny shook his head feeling all the weight he had carried when he was eleven years old.

_but I still moved… I still ran fast… I out run Tommy that day didn't I. _

The movement in the weeds stopped for a moment before IT picked up speed again.

Kenny licked his lips the first movement he could offer since being rooted to the stop.

"Ye-uh… I ran from Tommy… I ran from you too you fucker" Kenny spat watching the zig zagging through the weeds even though they had thinned out where the movement was coming from Kenny still couldn't see.

"Buddy you're a boy make a big noise … Playing in the street gonna be a big man some day…You got mud on yo face…You big disgrace…Kicking your can all over the place" Kenny found himself singing and watching as the movement crept closer now.

It was the same song Kenny had heard before his mother had screamed at him for listing to such filth. Of course to a ten year old boy going on eleven that music was almost that of the gods.

Rock 'n roll gods of course but gods none the less. It was also the very song he heard the day Tommy and his friends had caught up to him and it was the very same song he was humming to himself when him stumbled across the outsider club.

It was his song in some way… he had been given it.

"We will we will rock you… we will we will rock you" Kenny sang with more heart and more fun then he had when he was eleven years old. Because when he was eleven years old he didn't understand the power that song held for him.

The weeds parted just before his feet and a gloved claw hand reached out and scrabbled at his boot. With a loud stomp in time with the song playing in his head Kenny brought his foot down on the hand backing away.

"Buddy you're a young man hard man… Shouting in the street gonna take on the world some day…You got blood on yo face…You big disgrace… Waving your banner all over the place" Kenny sang this as he strode backwards. The claw hand popped out of existence as Kenny climbed into his car. With a smile Kenny started the car the very song he was singing started bellowing out at him.

Despite the fact Kenny hadn't turned the radio on when he drove down here from Bangor he didn't care because he gunned it out of the train yard glancing in his mirror to see the single blue and white balloon drifting from the place he had stood.

He didn't even stop to read those bold black letters, instead he sang along with his song.

All the way to the library.


End file.
